How to Be a Researcher: A Strategic Guide for Academic Success

175 Pages·2016·1.09 MB·English

by  Jonathan St B T Evans

How to Be a Researcher
How to Be a Researcher provides a strategic guide to the conduct of a successful
research career within a university environment. Based on the author’s extensive
personal experience, it offers down-to-earth advice, philosophical guidance and
discussions of the political context of academic research.
This is not a research methods book, and the topics it covers are rarely discussed
elsewhere. The bulk of the book provides practical advice on the development of
essential skills and strategic approaches, covering questions such as:
• how to decide which topics to work on
• how to read and review literature
• how to develop theory
• how to integrate research and teaching activity
• how to approach research design
• how to obtain and manage research funding
• how to collaborate and supervise effectively
• how to write up your research and
• how to secure the best sources of publication
The final part of the book considers the philosophy and psychology of research
work and includes an exploration of the cognitive biases that may affect
researchers.
How to Be a Researcher will be particularly useful for master’s and doctoral
students in the behavioral and social sciences, and also for early career academics
developing research within a university career.
Jonathan St B T Evans is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Plymouth Univer-
sity. He has over 40 years’ experience of experimental research and has published
more than 150 journal articles. He has also authored eight books, and he served as
Editor of the journal Thinking & Reasoning for 17 years.
This page intentionally left blank
How to Be a Researcher
A strategic guide for academic success
Jonathan St B T Evans
First published 2016
by Routledge
27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2016 Jonathan St B T Evans
The right of Jonathan St B T Evans to be identified as the author of this
work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Evans, Jonathan St. B. T., 1948–
How to be a researcher : a strategic guide for academic success /
Jonathan St B T Evans. — 1 Edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-138-91730-9 (hardback) — ISBN 978-1-138-91731-6
(pbk.) — ISBN 978-1-315-68892-3 (ebook) 1. Reasoning
(Psychology) 2. Research. I. Title.
BF442.E9294 2015
001.4—dc23 2015009233
ISBN: 978-1-138-91730-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-91731-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-68892-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Times
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of Figures and Tables vii
Foreword ix
Introduction 1
PART ONE: ADVICE
1 Scholarship and the origin of ideas 11
2 Research and teaching 22
3 Designing empirical studies 31
4 Research funding 48
5 Developing and testing theories 61
6 Collaboration and supervision 77
7 Communication of research 89
PART TWO: PHILOSOPHY AND PSYCHOLOGY OF RESEARCH
8 Hypothesis testing and reasoning 115
9 Statistical inference 131
Final thoughts 147
Notes 149
References 153
Subject Index 159
Author Index 161
This page intentionally left blank
List of Figures and Tables
Figures
3.1 Problem space for anagram of MASTER 37
5.1 (a) Muller-Lyer illusion; (b) Ponzo illusion 74
7.1 Structure of an empirical journal article 96
8.1 Models of premises for the syllogism given in the text 116
9.1 The prosecutor’s fallacy 134
9.2 Significance test on one coin from the bag of 1000 136
9.3 Number of type 1 errors made by a career researcher 139
Tables
3.1 Main attributes of the research design problem space 38
3.2 Main evaluation criteria for research designs 40
This page intentionally left blank
Foreword
I have been engaged in academic research work for what seems like a very long
time: in fact, since 1969, when I commenced my PhD studies. I am probably an
unusual person, but I have found this a most satisfying and fulfilling way in which
to spend my life. Over this lengthy period, I have learned a great deal about the
process of research in ways that are philosophical, practical and personal. Very
little of this was learned from books: certainly not books on research methods. The
major stimuli for the current book derive from my efforts to convey this knowledge
in supervising PhD students, mentoring junior colleagues and particularly teach-
ing master’s students studying Psychological Research Methods. I soon realised
that what they most needed to know was not to be found in any available book.
Instead, I had to teach them primarily from my own experiences as a researcher.
So eventually I decided to write the missing book myself.
In 2005, I wrote How to Do Research: A Psychologist’s Guide, published by Psy-
chology Press, to cover these objectives. Of the books I have written, this remains
my favourite. It seemed at the time to write itself, with little effort required on my
part. I wrote it immediately after completion of a much heavier and scholarly work
(Evans & Over, 2004) and on return (from sabbatical leave) to my normal uni-
versity duties. Ordinarily, I would never have contemplated another book in such
circumstances, but chapters of the current volume kept appearing unbidden in my
mind, demanding to be written down. I am one of those writers whose work seems
to incubate by unconscious processing and then flow on to the word processor.
In one sense, the book required me to do no research at all in order to write it: in
another sense, it had required 35 years to prepare it. Now 10 years later, I have
decided to publish a much extended, revised and reorganized version of the book
under the present revised title.
Looking back, I wonder why it took me quite so long to think of writing down
what I had learned from my experience as a researcher in book form. I attribute
this in part to the discipline of writing that had been instilled into me by years of
professional research. What I – like all academic researchers – am obliged to write
are scholarly works. These include conventional research methods texts. But what
I needed to say could not possibly be expressed as a scholarly work. Such works
do not allow their authors to write from personal experience, freely express opin-
ions or to make claims that are not evidenced by published sources. But it became